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UNN Fully Welcomes the 43rd Elected President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama

Yeah, I know I wrote 43rd elected president. Bush was selected the first time which in a weird way to me doesn’t count. He at least got elected the second time.

Anywhoooooo….

Yes, per my last live blog note, I was really a wreck last night at about 11:00PM EST as were most black people around the country. As we cheered in the streets and churches and parks and meeting rooms with our bedazzled Obama shirts, I was sitting in our student center, as the blog says trying to maintain my composure.

Well that didn’t work.

Yeah, I was doing alright past the CNN announcement for Obama. But, as I was trying to drop that last blog line, wondering if they were going to kick us out of the student center, because they said they were at 11pm, I heard Roland Martin’s voice only to look up and see his face streaked with tears and bloodshot. I was still maintaing my composure for the most part as bedlam began to ensue round about me.

Folks giving random high fives. Hugs abounding all over the place. Thank you Jesus’ and Hallelujahs. Someone jumped so high they hit their head on a hanging light fixture.

Oh, but then David Gergen, the silent force that has kept CNN fair throughout all of this said “I’m reminded of the words of Martin Luther King when he said ‘I may not get there with you, but I’ve been to the mountaintop….”

Well, I just lost it. (btw, why isn’t ANY of this stuff on YouTube yet?!?!?!?!)

I let a tear fall down my face.

And then eventually they got a prayer circle formed after I had heard “We Shall Overcome” and some other Baptist modern Civil Rights song they decided to sing. It was definitely a surreal moment because people were taking pictures of the television screens with their camera phones as if we were really at the rally back in Chicago. So, as the prayer circle had formed (see previous post) and I had heard one lady start speaking in tongues (yes, she really did) and I saw grown black men standing in the circle crying, I couldn’t take my eyes off of the CNN screen down in the right hand corner as the yellow checkmark stood by Presdient-Elect Barack H. Obama’s (yeah, I just had to write it all out again) name and the number 338.

Sorry, I’m a Jesse Jackson apologist as the day is long. I think as a black man, he was crying because it was a dream fulfilled for him to see a black man become elected President of these sometimes United States of America. If I can backtrack momentarily–as off color and inappropriate as his comments about Obama were, let the record show, his castration proclivities were in frustration to the fact that he wanted Obama to be held accountable to the community that was his beggest supporters which was the African American electorate.

Well, of course I’m sure there was some “Wish it coulda been me” behind that, but hell, who wouldn’t have felt that, that only made him human. I mean, I got sick of reading the “Rosa sat so Martin could march, Martin marched so Obama could run….” from either text messages or on Facebook status messages. Frankly, I had heard that back in February at the Popes of Blackness Convention State of the Black Union in the New Uppity Negro Capital of the World, New Orleans. And the speaker, who’s name slips me at the moment (and this computer is moving so slow, it’s not worth a YouTube search right now) actually said “Rosa sat so Martin could march. Martin marched so Jesse could run. Jesse ran so Obama could win.” Hell, somehow Jay-Z is going to end up with the creator of that phrase.

**rolls eyes**

Oh yes, let us all remember we were behind Jesse in ’84 and ’88. And as much as black and white folk criticize him and Al Sharpton they go IN the gate EVERYTIME they decide to let them speak at the Democratic National Conventions. Clearly we all remember “Stay out of the Bushes.”

Well….moving right along.

So, my live blogging ended at 11pm on the dot and we saw what that resulted in: me trying not to be a basketcase. I went back to my room after I heard partially the speech that Sen. John McCain gave, which of course was a gracious speech and ultimately gave me joy and peace that we did not elect him. Yeah,let me park here for a moment–I realised McCain had some fools following him when them jokers booed when he said he called Obama to congratulate him. I saw a flash of flat out frustration and almost anger when he had to silence the crowd. I mean seriously, could you have imagined the smugness of those people had their candidate won? Finally, as most other bloggers are saying, we saw the John McCain that most liberals who think with both side of their brain had kind of liked definitely prior to the campaign’s silly season.

But, as I saw Gov. Sarah “I totally lost this campaign for McCain” Palin standing there, I saw the most fake smile ever. I mean you lost. Show some modicum of sadness. She was grinning WAYYYYY too much. Perhaps it was that grin you give when you trying not to break down and lose it all the way. Or, I think I’m going to side with Soul Jonz in this one: she didn’t vote for McCain.

Check out the clip below and fast-forward if you desire to minute 2:00

Yeah, wtf?!?!?! Her name was on the ballot, and the reporter asked her “Who did you vote for?” (in case you didn’t hear it) and she responded “My vote is private”?!?!?!?!? HUUUUUUUUUH?!?!!? That was an easy answer: “I voted for myself.”

Frankly, she’s trying to spring board this into something–a 2012 run, I’m not necessarily convinced after seeing the CNN interview with Dana Bash, but still, she’s got something up her sleeve. But at least we’ll get a reprieve from hearing that damn up north accent for a while. I really wish she would go into that good night and just be happy with Alaska.

Which brings me to the funeral that was FoxNews last night. Granted I didn’t get the full festivities, but when I flipped and saw the Brit Hume was about to bust a blood vessel if he had to say “president-elect” one more time. I mean, it was classic. They were all fumbling over their words and the somehow the big boards that they had just weren’t working and it was just adding to their frustration. Seriously, the ones that decided to smile just made it seem all the more fake compared to the faces of “the panel” including Juan Williams who looked like just stepped off of a Greyhound bus with that damn top shirt button always undone.

Oh Gawwwwwd, I don’t mind contributing to Bill O’Reilly and Sean Hannity ratings because just to see the crow that they are now eating will be priceless tonight!

Well, I’m at the 1,200 word count tonight and I do want to see The O’Reilly Factor tonight just to laugh, so I’ll bid you all adieu and give you all part two sometime tomorrow. Along with a post I plan to dedicate to his speech–which, well, let’s just say was one of the most appropriate speeches for “such a time as this” and a post to just ream Shelby Steele who Soul Jonz said needs to have his seat vacated at Stanford because homeboy wrote A Bound Man: Why We are Excited about Obama and Why He Can’t Win.

HA! Guess he’s eating leftover crow for dinner tonight.

Sooo, tell me your election story. Where were you when you found out that Obama had won and McCain had lost? Even if you voted for McCain, I’d be very interested to hear what was your reaction and how does it feel, particularly since it was a Democratic sweep, more or less.

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4 thoughts on “UNN Fully Welcomes the 43rd Elected President of the United States, Barack Hussein Obama”

I was home, watching returns with the family, relieved, happy, and very moved to see the tears and dancing in the streets. I have great hope. But also great fears.

We had a small post-election church service tonight (the day after), it was announced in advance. As I said to a friend walking in, you feel more like you need it when you’ve lost. It was a small group. We are a liberal white church, everybody there was pro-Obama — and most folks were jubilant. “This is a new day.” “We have finally conquered racism.” “I’m so thrilled to see all the young people involved.” Etc. So I was more the voice of pessimism. I’m glad he won, I think he is a wonderful person and I have great hopes for him. And I am so glad it is so meaningful to Black folks. As my spouse said, it will be great to see a black family in the white house, great to move around who is a “real American.” But I’m with your father, too — he isn’t a descendant of slaves (although Michelle is), in the mainstream white media he ran an aggressively non-racial campaign, kind of as a white man with dark skin. I’m worried about all the terrible problems that white people will think are all ok now. AND 49% of the people did NOT vote for him, and some (not all) of them are pretty hostile. But my hope is this: Wanting to make things better is half way towards making things better. It is a good thing than we want to make things better. And that is my hope, that we will want to make things better.

I’ve said this to you before, and I think it bears repeating: racism is still alive, but we continue to conquer it every day that we live, and only through tolerance of others, and our willingness to leave the past in the past and look to the future, will we conquer it for good.

I’m extremely proud to be an American today, as we’ve been a part of a major milestone in our history, and hopefully a moment that young black people in our country can look at and be optimistic about concerning their own lives. For all the racist people that did not vote for Obama solely for the color of his skin, he still can attribute 61% of the votes that he got to white voters. That speaks volumes for how far we have come.

Revel now in this victory as a major milestone in the civil rights movement, and use it as inspiration for the future, but also acknowledge that Barack Obama is not a political statement alone, he is also the man that I think can lead this country to better days, for ALL of us. And very soon, he will have his opportunity to prove that.

Actually, if you want to get REALLY technical, Obama will only be the 43rd person to serve as President of the United States… because the 22nd and 24th Presidents were the same person – Grover Cleveland.

Go count them… only 42 people have ever been the President of the United States to this day, and on January 20th, Obama will become the 43rd.

Also… Gerald Ford was never elected President or Vice-President. Nixon appointed him VP AFTER the 1972 Election, and he took office as POTUS when Nixon resigned in 1974. Since he lost in 1976 to Carter, Ford is the only President we’ve ever had that was never elected.